Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-01
pRAMAT1C DETECTIVE METHODS.

DRAMATIC DETECTIVE METHODS.
The manner in which the New York de-
tectives wrung a confession from Unger,
the murderer Of Bohle, was as dramatic in
method as it was ingenious and startling,
and once more proves that stranger things
occur in real life than the fancy can
conjur up. The idea of suddenly con-
fronting the suspected with the CHASTITY
face of his dead victim is not new, and
against such surprises criminals are on
their guard. In this case, however, the
bloody implements used to do the murder
were, as if carelessly, exposed to the
prisoners view, but not word was said to
him or concerning them in his presence.
The next day the officers suddenly showed
him the weapons, and asked if he had
ever seen them, whereupon, though
startled, he replied in the negative. The
succeeding day he was taken into dimly-
lighted corridor under some pretext,
where the officer who had the day before
shown him the tools OF murder, was
standing in the gloom pointing tragically
TO the open trunk into which the mur
derer had packed the mutilated remains Of
his victim. The detective suddenly pro-
nounced the prisoners name, and as he
turned he saw the officer in the dramatic
pose described. The wretched man shud-
dered and tottered toward his cell But
he was retained in the corridor, and por-
ton of the victims clothing was held up
20 his view. He shivered and would
have fallen, but was aided to seat upon
an innocent enough appearing sofa. Sud
denly the murderer sprang to his feet with
groan, and asked to change his seat-the
lounge was one found in his room after his
arrest, and on which Bohle had been
killed. Painting and pale, The murderer
was taken to his cell, and shortly after
confessed his crime, He had himself
furnished all the missing proofs OF
his guilt. 1t is recital of a
quarrel, an assault BY deceased and the
killing by the prisoner, as he alleges in
self-defense. To save his family from dis
grace he kept the facts secret cut up the
body, shipped away the limbs and other
parts, save the head, in Hohlc's trunk, but
dropped the head into the river. Assum-
ing the mans story to be true, the case
closely resembles that Of the Parkman-
Webster murder, which so excited the
country OYER forty years ago. Had Unger,
after killing Bohlc, gone instantly upon
the street and proclaimed the fact, called
the officers and exhibited the wounds he
claims to have received, and have pointed
to the knife with which he says Bohle as
saulted him, he would have made a case
sufficiently strong TO save him from the gal
lows if not from imprisonment Had
the murderer in the Parkman- Webster
case acted in like manner, no execution
would have followed In both cases the
murderers remained silent, sought to CON
ceal the fact of the killing and endeavored
TO dispose Of the body by piece-meal As
Che too long delayed plea of self-defense
failed to save the murderer in the first
case, so it probably will fail in the latter.
II Is theory of many detectives that no
awful crime remains untold that the
murderer sooner or later must reveal his
crime to some one, that the tortures of con-
science drive him to make some one the
repository Of his terrible secret. And they
further hold that the terror attaching to
secrecy of such crimes, underlaid 10y the
superstitious element which in greater or
less degree is found in all men, drives the
murderer TO confession in many cases when
confronted with some OF the material evil
dences Of his crime The latter theory has
had many yerifcationS, and the case of
Unger is certainly one Of them. Had the
method employed by Inspector Byrnes in
shis instance been depicted upon the stage,
il would have been credited to wild fancy
and set down as altogether improbable.
But every days drift Of news proves the
adage that truth IS stranger than fiction.